Rudolf Von Ribbentrop - Early Life

Early Life

Ribbentrop spent a year at Westminster School, London while his father was Ambassador to Britain. The British diplomat Brian Urquhart, a student at the same school during Ribbentrop's time there, in his autobiography "A Life in Peace and War (1987)" describes the latter as being "doltish, surly and arrogant". Urquhart recalls that Ribbentrop, much to the dismay of his schoolmates, "arrived each morning in one of two plum-colored Mercedes-Benz limousines". Urquhart further recalls, "On arrival in Dean's Yard, both chauffeurs would spring out, give the Nazi salute, and shout "Heil Hitler!"

Peter Ustinov was his schoolmate at this time, as related in Ustinov's autobiography Dear Me (1971). Ustinov is also supposed to have clandestinely leaked Ribbentrop's presence at his school to The Times. The result of this was the prompt withdrawal of the younger Ribbentrop from the school as a precautionary measure for his safety, as well as for security of his father's mission in London. Though bearing the aristocratic "von" due to his father's adoption, he was not a member of the nobility. In 1960 he married Ilse-Marie Freiin von Münchhausen (1914—2010).

In 2008 Rudolf von Ribbentrop published a biography of his father, the foreign minister. It was in its original title called Joachim von Ribbentrop: Mein Vater: Erlebnisse und Erinnerungen. It has not been translated from German to any other language, although a translation into English is forthcoming.

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